The basis for a fellow's training and education will be through clinical training, research opportunities, and conferences and didactics.

Clinical Rotations and Educational Programs

Patient care is an important part of your responsibilities as a fellow. You’ll perform consultations, participate in team physician coverage and gain extensive experience through operating room, inpatient and outpatient duties. Our rotations and education programs form the basis of the clinical and educational components of our fellowship.

The fellow's function in the operating room and outpatient clinics under an apprentice model with one-on-one faculty supervision. This leads to independent activities with back-up as the year progresses. Team physician coverage also provides the opportunity for independence in consultation with athletic training staff and faculty back-up. Teaching responsibilities include fellow participation in conferences for orthopaedic surgery residents, family practice residents, athletic trainers, and physical therapy staff.

The fellows have excellent interaction with athletic trainers through experiences with Wake Forest, Winston-Salem State, North Carolina School for the Arts, Forsyth County High Schools, and the Winston-Salem Dash. Medical Plaza - Miller, Sports Medicine - Stratford, Davie Medical Center, houses all of our outpatient physical therapy services and the fellows have excellent opportunity for interaction with physical therapists. The 3-month rotations allow excellent continuity of care experiences.

Medical Plaza - Miller houses all of our outpatient clinics, physical therapy services, and a a state-of-the-art motion monitor. Three-month rotations provide excellent continuity-of-care experiences, and you’ll have many opportunities to interact with Physician Assistants. This center is also connected to the digital radiology systems and the medical record systems.

You’ll attend outpatient clinic sessions with the faculty member on whose service you’re rotating. This involves up to two days of clinic per week, depending on the faculty member and weekly schedule.

You’ll also interact with athletic trainers through experiences with Wake Forest teams, Winston-Salem State teams and the Winston-Salem Dash.

Fellows spend time assigned primarily to the gold team in a three-month block. This includes both operating room and outpatient clinic experience, and generally includes two days in the clinic and two days in the operating room each week. Operating room coverage allows fellows to function as primary surgeon, teaching assistant, or first assistant according to the particular case and fellow and resident availability.

Gold Team Service Faculty

Fellows spend time assigned primarily to the black team in a three-month block. This includes both operating room and outpatient clinic experience, and generally includes two days in the clinic and two days in the operating room each week. Operating room coverage allows fellows to function as primary surgeon, teaching assistant, or first assistant according to the particular case and fellow and resident availability. Residents do have access to cross cover in the event of unique educational opportunities.

The fellows function in team physician activities at the Wake Forest University athletic program, Winston-Salem State University athletic program, and Winston-Salem Dash (Chicago White Sox minor affiliate). This is under the direct supervision of Dr. Hubbard, Dr. Waterman, and Dr. Coates. In addition, the fellows assist in high school sports coverage for the Forsyth County School District and special events coverage, such as the Winston-Salem Open and Winston-Salem Cycling Classic. These activities allow good experiences with excellent supervision, but the opportunity to develop independence is also stressed.

Research Opportunities

Fellows are allotted one half-day per week in protected research time and attend a monthly research meeting with faculty and research coordinators. The research day will vary depending on clinical service assignments, research program opportunities and effective time utilization. Fellows are required to produce at least two publishable manuscripts and will have access to numerous additional opportunities and resources to support further interdisciplinary collaboration and research.

Staff including two full-time PhD supervisors, two full-time laboratory technicians, a research secretary, a research center administrator, a research intern and two clinical research data coordinators

Fellows also have access to a new state-of-the-art, 16-camera Pitching Biomechanics and Motion Analysis Laboratory at David F. Couch Ballpark, home of Wake Forest University Baseball. Under the direction of Kristen Nicholson, PhD, this facility explores modifiable risk factors to avoid overuse throwing injuries. Fellows also have access to the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the Wake Forest University undergraduate campus, which houses a full gait laboratory with high-speed cameras and force plate capabilities.

Conferences and Didactics

Didactic teaching occurs in a weekly dedicated Sports Medicine conference. This consists of presentations from sports medicine faculty, basic science faculty, residents,fellows, and allied health professionals. The fellows have access to the full complement of orthopaedic conferences and are expected to participate in resident education, both formally and informally.

Sports Medicine Conferences

The format of the weekly sports medicine conference will consist of a 60-minute presentation followed by a discussion/question and answer session. This will be supplemented by questions drawn from OITE/OSAE sources. In addition, each conference will be supplemented by journal articles, including landmark publications, current articles, technical notes, and contemporary studies.

There is a monthly sports medicine journal club featuring recent articles on a focused sports medicine topic. The fellows will be responsible for the organization of this conference.

Anatomy Sessions

Didactic anatomy sessions will be held in Wake Forest School of Medicine’s state of the art anatomy laboratory, with both embalmed and fresh-frozen specimens. Upper and lower extremity areas will be covered in conjunction with the didactic teaching program. Fellows and residents will perform the initial dissection and then present the prosections to the Sports Medicine team.

Additional Conferences and Opportunities Include:

The majority of the didactic teaching takes place in the weekly one hour conference, which covers sports medicine and emphasizes the development of a lifetime of scholarly activities and learning. Our goal is to provide a framework onto which that learning can be added and applied appropriately. In addition to this weekly conference, bimonthly conferences in the following areas supplement this didactic teaching:

Conjoint radiology conference (Bi-monthly)

Conjoint family medicine conference (Bi-monthly)

Sports Medicine Journal Club (Bi-monthly)

Annual Wake Forest Sports Medicine Symposium

ACC Sports Medicine Conference

Orthopaedic Surgery Departmental Grand Rounds (weekly)

Quality Assurance/Morbidity and Mortality Conference (monthly) Appropriate conferences from the orthopaedic surgery residency program are chosen on an annual basis and fellow attendance at those conferences is expected as well. Fellow attendance at these conferences is required. The teaching staff also attends all conferences and conference teaching is provided at the appropriate level (faculty, fellow, resident, ancillary staff).

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